Originally posted by too-old-nowNone of us liked the brother-sister relationship, since it meant the whole first movie was incestuous and creepy.

YES! That's why I believe George Lucas is bullshitting when he says he wrote the whole thing and then broke it up later. Why would you put incest in a movie you want kids to watch? And why has no one called him on that?

I remember seeing other kids with very obviously damp faces after the end of Jedi. I know I was weeping like a little fool. Darth not only came back from the dark side to save his son's life, but there was also that disturbing funeral pyre scene with his face smoking away. I know my mom teared up the first time, but by about the third time we saw it in the theater, she was less than moved. To this day, I marvel at the fact that she sat through that movie with me eight times in the theater. In fairness, though, she started nodding off by showing #4 and I think slept through substantial stretches of showing #8.

I was eight when Star Wars came out in 1977. The second time we went to see it (of probably 15 times in the theater, which at $1.00 matinee made it a no brainer), I decided to take my Sears brand cassette recorder and capture the magic. It seemed to be a great idea (to me anyway), so I loaded up a stack of Realistic C-30's (Radio Shack's classic brand) and jumped in the T-Bird so mom could take me and my brother to the Genesee Theater in Waukegan. Waukegan was also the home of Great Lakes Naval Base, which at that time, other than Norfolk and San Diego was the largest base in the US.

We were going to the Saturday night 8:00 pm show that was packed to the rafters, with many sailors in attendance. When the 20th Century Fox theme music cranked up, I fired up the Sears and began to document what was to an eight year old, the greatest thing I'd ever seen.

After the initial scenes with Vader and Leia, the row of sailors in front of me started talking loudly about how awesome Vader was. These guys were 18-21, at the oldest, and were so into it as well.

In what my mom still brings up to me every time they release a new Star Wars movie, I leaned forward and said, "Excuse me, but I'm trying to tape record the movie!" They looked at each other, smiled, nodded and then apologized for disturbing my project. After the movie they were cool about it saying that I must really be into Star Wars, and they hoped the tapes came out.

They did and man did we wear them out, listening over and over. They died just as the special version of "The Story of Star Wars" came out, a record album with dialouge and linking narration that I had in LP and 8-track (seriously--for the car!).

(edited by NickBockwinkelFan on 11.5.05 0226)"Well, you can't involve friendship with business. It has to be one or the other. It's either business or friendship, or hit the bricks!"--Life Lessons from Bobby the Brain Heenan WCW Uncensored 2000 preview

Originally posted by Sec19Row53I've just created my own new memories by purchasing a ticket for the 12:05 AM showing on May 19. Thank goodness I have an off-site meeting the next day.

I've heard of these shows but always wondered - do you still get sucked in to 20-25 minutes of previews/commercials before the feature presentation?

I think it depends which theatre. I'm going to the 12:01 screening at the Vista, an independent theatre in Hollywood. I saw the midnight screenings of Episodes I and II there, and I remember there being preivews before I, but not II. I don't know what a big chain would do, but my money's on there being SEVERAL commercials before the screening. All of which will be booed mercilessly, no doubt.

As for the memories, I have too many to mention, but here are a couple:

-My parents took me to see Star Wars for the first time when I was 3. Darth Vader's first appearance scared me to tears, but my mom managed to calm me down. Later, when R2-D2 was shot by the Jawas, I thought he had been killed and I FREAKED OUT, demanding to go home. My dad didn't want to leave, so he finished the movie while my mom watched me in the lobby. Obiviously, I later went back and fell head over heels in love with the whole universe.

-The day Jedi was released, I took all of my school stuff out of my backpack and filled it with my SW toys. I went to school and convinced a bunch of older kids (that claimed they were bigger SW fans) that it was "International Star Wars Day" and you were supposed to bring your toys to school. They felt left out. :)

Originally posted by SchippeWreckThe day Jedi was released, I took all of my school stuff out of my backpack and filled it with my SW toys. I went to school and convinced a bunch of older kids (that claimed they were bigger SW fans) that it was "International Star Wars Day" and you were supposed to bring your toys to school. They felt left out. :)

Wow! You have a NICE story about that...apparently me and my friends were just nasty little bastards.

My friends and I managed to convince the younger kids on the playground of this:

"If you are strong in the Force you should be able to face the wall and lean into it. The Force will keep you from hitting the wall."

Originally posted by too-old-nowNone of us liked the brother-sister relationship, since it meant the whole first movie was incestuous and creepy.

YES! That's why I believe George Lucas is bullshitting when he says he wrote the whole thing and then broke it up later. Why would you put incest in a movie you want kids to watch? And why has no one called him on that?

Put the incest aside for a moment, as who knows what the laws are in outer space, shouldn't Vader 5 minutes into Episode IV have gone: 'I am your Father' to Leia by sensing the Force in her?

Speaking of the force, shouldn't Anakin be able to, I don't know, sense the two freaking kids in his wife's stomach? C'mon, the guy can sense Obi-Wan on the other side of the Death Star but can't sense his own kids in the bed next to him? Weak...

Originally posted by Pizza Delivery JonesSpeaking of the force, shouldn't Anakin be able to, I don't know, sense the two freaking kids in his wife's stomach? C'mon, the guy can sense Obi-Wan on the other side of the Death Star but can't sense his own kids in the bed next to him? Weak...

DEVIL'S ADVOCATE:

Anakin is Force-attuned. It's reasonable to assume that he would be able to sense others that are Force-attuned (i.e. The Emperor, Obi-Wan, Luke (after training), Yoda, etc). Since Leia hadn't used the Force (and thusly, wasn't Force-attuned), Anakin couldn't find her. Same with the twins.

Regardless of the bad memories, without his mother, was there anything left for Vader on Tatooine? Maybe Lucas can add a new scene into Ep IV where, once he realizes that he caught the princess the Tatooine sector, Vader decides to take a short break and hang out with Watto. (Although this does open the possibility that Beru and Owen were killed for more than just their involvement with the droids...)

Besides, Tatooine, being on the outer rim, isn't as strongly under the Empire's control as other planets, (especially given the prominence of the Hutts). That's part of the reason why Mos Eisley is such a hive of scum and villainy.

As for Vader not sensing his daughter, he didn't sense Luke when he snuck on to the Death Star to save her either. (Of course, he may have been distracted by sensing Obi Wan at the time.) There could also be a mystical explanation to this which we'll find out about in a week. I think that its moreso the case where the Force will indicate there's a "connection" between two people, but it won't tell you explicitly what that connection is. So even if Vader saw that he's connected to Leia, he could have thought it was political and not familial.

As for Vader being able to sense the kids while coming to term in his wife, I'd think anyone would be able to "sense" that, given that she looks quite preggers in the trailer. Apparently, Anakin wasn't quite around his wife that much, and probably was a bit too distracted to be sensing her condition. (Again, I'm sure we'll find out about this in a week.)

Also, I think Lucas knew the whole time that Leia and Luke were brother and sister. Ep IV wasn't that incestuous and creepy (Luke excitement about meeting a princess and being on an adventure seems easy to read as him being attracted to her), and even then, when Leia kisses him, its nice and platonic on the cheek. What's creepier is that Leia gives him a full open mount kiss in Ep V, when Lucas clearly had to know they were related.

I am way too hyped about this movie. It had better be awesome.

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Anakin is Force-attuned. It's reasonable to assume that he would be able to sense others that are Force-attuned (i.e. The Emperor, Obi-Wan, Luke (after training), Yoda, etc). Since Leia hadn't used the Force (and thusly, wasn't Force-attuned), Anakin couldn't find her. Same with the twins."

And Luke was able to put on the blast helmet and detect the training probe in the Millenium Falcon beause it had a special force homing beacon in it?

Anakin is Force-attuned. It's reasonable to assume that he would be able to sense others that are Force-attuned (i.e. The Emperor, Obi-Wan, Luke (after training), Yoda, etc). Since Leia hadn't used the Force (and thusly, wasn't Force-attuned), Anakin couldn't find her. Same with the twins.

That argument does not hold water at all. When Aalderan was destroyed Obi Wan clearly sensed the disturbance "like a thousand voices all crying out at once." There were no known Jedi's on Aalderan other than the Princess.

Secondly if Jedi's could only affect "force-attuned" folks they would not be able to manipulate the thoughts of non-Jedi's. Thus rendering "These are not the droids you are looking for" and "I will take you to Jaba now" useless and plain wrong.

Additionally, taken theforce.net's encyclopedia:

"The Jedi Knights discovered that the Force was accessible to all living beings through the presence of midi-chlorians in their cells. The more midi-chlorians that inhabited a being's cells, the more the being was able to contact the Force. However, a high concentration of midi-chlorians did not guarantee a being control of the Force."

So all living things are force-attuned, it's just that Jedi's are more force-attuned than everyone else.

Perhaps this would be a good time for someone who is Star Wars crazy to summarize the first two films by which I mean Episodes I and II, which I watched and kinda didn't understand.

In I, I sorta got that Obi-Wan and...uh...Liam were Jedis. I didn't get what they were trying to accomplish in that first mission. Then they found Anakin, didn't understand why they wanted him or trusted him. I had no idea what JarJar was supposed to be doing. That last battle was great, though. Kinda confused as to why the good guys were double-teaming a bad guy, though.

Also, who is the guy that becomes the Emperor? Palpatine? What is his position and why does he go evil? Is he always evil or does he get corrupted?

In two, I followed a little better. Didn't know who cloned the clones, or what their purpose was. Followed pretty much everything else. Padme was the stunt double of Queen Amidala, right? And Anakin bones her and that's how we get Luke and Leia? But why does he kill those villagers? Just cuz he's a bad apple?

That's pretty much it. I'm just to cheap to rent the movies again

Besides...I would never notice the scary exact detail some of you guys would, this will be a better education for me.

Originally posted by Hogan's My DadIn I, I sorta got that Obi-Wan and...uh...Liam were Jedis. I didn't get what they were trying to accomplish in that first mission.

The Trade Federation was basically getting too big for their britches, and causing problems w/ the Old Republic government over the Naboo system. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were sent to mediate the dispute...but the Trade Fed went all 1980's Libya militaristic-like, and war was ON.

Originally posted by Hogan's My DadThen they found Anakin, didn't understand why they wanted him or trusted him.

His midichlorian count was off the scale, he showed remarkable ability for a 9-year-old w/ a bad haircut, and Qui-Gon thought li'l Ani was the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy of "the One who will bring balance to The Force." (Too bad that "balance" turned out to be the heels ending good guy dominance and going over strong, as I assume we'll see in Revenge of the Sith.)

Originally posted by Hogan's My DadI had no idea what JarJar was supposed to be doing.

Uh...annoying the f*ck outta the fanbase?

Originally posted by Hogan's My DadThat last battle was great, though. Kinda confused as to why the good guys were double-teaming a bad guy, though.

Darth Maul was a badass, the first known Sith (dark order opposing the Jedi) in a long time...and he had a double-bladed lightsaber. As long as there were 2 Jedi Knights there, why not double-team his ass? It's not like Hebner's there to admonish 'em with a 10-count.

Originally posted by Hogan's My DadAlso, who is the guy that becomes the Emperor? Palpatine? What is his position and why does he go evil? Is he always evil or does he get corrupted?

Yep, Senator Palpatine becomes Chancellor Palpatine becomes the Emperor. He's just a power-hungry bastard...but from the looks of Sith's trailer, we'll see more about how he got just so damn twisted.

Originally posted by Hogan's My DadDidn't know who cloned the clones, or what their purpose was.

Uh...some rogue Jedi, I think, did it in secret. He figured the Old Republic was going to need an army to combat the droid armies of the Trade Federation, or some other security thing. Turns out the cloning was unauthorized, but due to the sudden need for combat troops, the Old Republic takes possession of the clone troopers (forming the basis for what would become the Empire's military force. Hell, even their armor and their transport ships are reminiscent of eventual Stormtrooper gear and Star Destroyers.)

Originally posted by Hogan's My DadPadme was the stunt double of Queen Amidala, right? And Anakin bones her and that's how we get Luke and Leia?

Something like that. Of course, it is forbidden for Jedi to get it on and get married. New Jedi are supposed to be ID'd from regular births and taken from their families as infants...not by the product of sweet Jedi lovin'. (Sorry, Chef.)

Originally posted by Hogan's My DadBut why does he kill those villagers? Just cuz he's a bad apple?

Another example of Anakin Skywalker's slow corruption by the darkside. After the Sandpeople killed his mother, he gave in to his hatred...a definite Jedi no-no, as was the vengeful slaughter.

"green rebooted your scarab to control the meat inside." I'm taking this to mean that its the scarab in control now and not Jaimie. which by the way now looks an awful lot like the Roy Harper "I was the mole?" turn last season.